
Author 



Title 



Imprint 



GPO 16—7464 




m 



A 



riSfK 




AN APPEAL 

TO ^IIE SENATE, 

TO MODIFY ITS POLICY, AND SAVE FROM AFRICANIZATION AND MILITARY 
DESPOTISM THE SLVTES OF THE SOUTH. 



SPEECH 






ON. JAMES Pi. DOOLITTLE, 

OF WISCONSIN", 

DeliVei-ed in the Senate of the United States, January 23, 1868. 



.SPEECHES OF EON..HExNRY STANBERY, 

ATTORNEY GENERAL OF THE UNITED STATES, 

HON. J. S. BLACK, 

AT THE 

GREAT DEMOCRATIC BANQUET IN THE CITY OP 
WASHINGTON, 

ON ins EIGIITU OF JANUAUY, 1S68. 



WASHINGTON, D. C: 

PEINTED BY ORDER OF THE CONGRESSIONAL DEMOCRATIC JIXECUTIVE COJIMITTEE. 

1868. 



. J. R. 






The bill (H. R. Xo. 439) ad.litional and sup- 
plementary to aa act entitled "An aet to 
provide for the more etlicient government 
of the rebel States," passed March 2, 1S67, 
and tlie acts supplementary tlierelo, was 
read the second time by its title. 

Mr. DOOLITTLE said : 

Mr. President: In moving the refer- 
ence ot this bill to the Committee on the 
Judiciary I desire to say that I shall 
move to amend the ordinary motion of 
reference by addina: certain instructions 
which I shall send to the Chair. 

Mr. President, there is more involved 
in this measure than in any other, all 
others, perhaps. I see in it a complete 
overthrow of the Constitution id ten 
States of the Union. I see in it a prac- 
tical dissolution of the Union." I see a 
Republio in form, at least, still remain- 
ing north of the Potomac. I see an em- 
pire rising south of it. I see in it»the 
realization of the wildest dream of Cal- 
houn— a dual Executive— a President to 
execute the laws in the Repitblic of the 
North ; a military dictator, independent 
of the President, to make as well as ex- 
ecute laws in the negro empire of the 
South. My heart is oppressed with a 
Sorrow too deep tor full utterance; and 
yet, with the indulgence of the Senate, 
I would make a last appeal to modify 
this policy. I deem it a duty which I 
owe to the country to do so now, before 
this bill goes to the committee, for in 
that committee I have no voice, and I 
know when its report is once made, and 
they are fully committed to the measure, 
it will be too late. J fear I am already 
powerless to influence the judgment of 
the Senate. But as I love my country 
and her republican institutions, as, 
next to the God of heaven, I have wor- 
shiped them from my youth up, and as I 
verily believe, although I pray Heaven 
I may be mistaken, they are now in 
most imminent peril of utter destruc- 
tion if the bill shall l>ecome a 'aw, I 
know that Senators, if they do not 
agree wit^ me, will pardon me for 
giving expression to those earnest con- 
A'ictions which I could hardly repress if 
I would. 

As I can have no hope that Congress 
will wholly abandon its reconstruction 
policy, for the purpose of asking the 
Senate to consider the question of modi- 
fying it so far as to limit negro suffrage 
to certain classes, I submit the following 
motion, which I now send to the Chair, 
-and request the Secretary to read. 

The Secretary read as follows : 

Resolved, That the bill be referred to the 
Coioimitlee ou the Judiciary, and that the 



said committee be instructed, In said bill, or 
in any otlier bill which may be reported by 
them having reference to the question of 
reconstruction, so-called, in any of the 
States not represented in the present Con- 
gress, to insert the following proviso: 

Provided, nevertheless, That upon an elec- 
tion for the ratification of any constitution, 
or of officers under ttie same, previous to its 
adoption in nny State, no person not liaviug 
tlie q aliflcations of an elector uuder the 
constitution and laws of sucli State previ- 
ous to tlie late rebellion shall be allowed to 
vote, unless lie shall possess one of the 
followins, qualiticatious, namely: 

1. He shall haveservtd as a soldier in the 
Federal Army for one year or more. 

2. He shall have sufficient education to 
read the Constitution of the United States 
and to subscribe liis name to an oath to sup- 
port the same ; or, 

3. He shall be seized In his own right, or 
in tlie ri^iht of his wife, of a freehold of the 
value of S2.50. 

Mr. DOOLITTLE. Mr. President, 
the question presented in the instruc- 
tions proposed by me is whether Con- 
gress is still resolved to subject the white 
people of the Southern States to the 
domination of the negro race at the 
point of the bayonet, or whether Con- 
gress, in deference to the recently ex- 
pressed will of the American people,* 
"wil now so far modify their policy as to 
leave the governments in those St ut«s 
in the hands of the white race and of the 
moce civilized portion of the blacks? 
That is the naked qttestion. Strip it of 
all useless verbiage and specious argu- 
ments about sustaining loyal men and 
punishing rebels, it is nothing more or 
less than this : shall the General of the 
Army put the negro in power over the 
white race iti all the States of the South 
and keep him there? That purpose is bold- 
ly avowed by some, and that will be the 
effect of this Radical reconstruction as it 
now stands, or as it will stand, if this 
bill shall become a law. On the other 
hand, the amendtnent which I offer, if 
adopted, would leave the governments 
in those States where they belonaf and 
whera they ought always to remain — in 
the hands of our own race — wl>ile, at the 
same time, it would allow the right- of 
suffrage to all those negroes who have 
any claim to it by reason of intelligence 
or patriotic services or estate subject to 
taxation, namely : 

1. To those who have served in the 
Federal Army ; 

2. To those wJqo have sufficient edu- 
cation to read the Constitutigoi of the 
United States and to subscribe their 
names to an oath to support the same; 
and 

i3. To tho%6 who have acquired and 






■1\ 



^ 



hold real property to the valne of $250. 

But the questiou may bo asked, why 
not apply ttie same tests to the Avhite 
men oi'the South? The answer is plain 
and twofold. First, by the constitutions 
and laws of those States the right ef 
Rulfra}2;e is already secured to thcai, and 
wo have no rightful power to take it 
away. 'J'o do so would trample under 
our leet one of tho most sacred rights 
reserved to the States. Ib-is by extend- 
ing suffrage to the negroes that Congress 
is overturning the constitutions of 
thoso Stales. In my opmion, this 
js a usurpation, which its advocates 
justify upon tho ground of ne<*ssity 
alone. I neither admit the power nor 
the nect»<sity ; but, granting both, no 
reiison can be given, and no neeessi-ty 
but that of party iis^ndancy can be 
urged, for going auy fin-ther in this rev- 
oJutionary work Ihau to admit to suf 
fragetlie classes of liegroes named in 
this amendment. 

The s6<-ond answer is, that the white 
men have bt;ea accustomed for centuries 
to v(Ue. They have borne all tiao re- 
, spoiisibilities and discharged all the du- 
ties of Ireciuen auioug iVeemon ; and it 
is a very different thing to take away 
from a freeman a privilege long exer- 
cised by him and his ancestors, from 
what it is to confer one never before en- 
joyed upon ignorant, half-civilized Afri- 
cans just released from slavery. Three 
generations back many of them wore 
cannibals and savages of the lowest type 
of iiuinau kind. The only civilizntion 
they have is that which they have re- 
ceived during their slavery in»Ainerica. 

To confer this great privilege upon 
the more enlightened negroes might 
tend to elevate the mass in the end. 
But to confer it now upon their ig- 
norant kordes can only degrade the 
ballot and the republican institutions 
which rest up<m it. 

No answer to this view ha.s ever been 
given, no answer can be given, by the 
friends of universal negro suffrage, ex- 
cept tliis: " Tiie ignorant foreigner is 
allowed to vote, why not let tho igno- 
rant negro vote?" Thus to compare the 
civilized European, accustomed to free 
labor, to self sujDj)ort, and self-govern- 
ment, to all the duties and responsibili- 
ties of a freeman, and who withal, be- 
fore he is allowed to vote in most of the 
btates, must appear in open court, and, 
after live years' residence, prove by the 
testimony of two citizens a good moral 
cbjjracter, and that he is well disposed 
toward the Govern ment and institutions 
of the United States — to compare him 
with the poor degraded mass of Afri- 
cans, plantation slaves just set free, is 
an atrocious- libel upou ourselves, upon 
o.ur ancestors, upon the results of Chris- 
tian civilisation, and upon theCaucasian 
f-ace which for thousands of years has 
ruled the world. 

But suppose it to be true that too many 
ignorant foreigners of our own race are 
admitted to suffrage already, is that any 
reason or any apology even for admit- 
ting six hundred thousand half-civilized 
men of another race — men whose natu- 
ral home is in the tropics, who are ex- 



otics here, transplanted, not by the natu- 
ral laws of emigration, not by their own 
free will, but by the cupidity of Old and • 
New England, as slave=!, and whose 
wholo education and civilization, so far 
as they Lave any, have been derived 
from slavery to the wdiite man? I do 
not say there are not some ignorant 
white men, foreign ancf native born, 
who are not qualified to vote; Ijut they 
are exceptions to the general rule. I do 
not say there are not soms persons of 
Indian, of Chinese, or of African de- 
scent who are qualified; bat they are 
exceptions to the gen»'ral rule also. So- 
ciety must, in tliH main; be governed by 
gcnoral laws. Whilo the general rule is 
that wliite men are capable, and there- 
fore suffrage may be made universal 
a.m«)ug them, on the other hand the 
general rule is that Indians, Chinee, 
Csiolie;?, and nogroe-s aro incompetent; 
and especially is tliis true of the negroes 
in the plantation States. Tiierefore the 
general rule should exclude them 
from suffrage. At ail events it should 
1)0 no farther relaxed than to admit tho 
excej)ted classes:/ mentioned in this 
amendment. 

Tho effetit of the adoption of this 
aniend ment would be to allow all who 
have the qualifications required by 
the constitutions of those States beforo 
the rebellion,not specially disfranchised, 
to vote; that is to say, tlio mass of white 
men, and at the same time it would al- 
low the most liberal negro sulli-age at ail 
compatible with the mainteuauce of 
civilized governments in those States. 

Let Congress now pause, and modify 
its course in aceordan<-e with tlip provi- 
sions of this ameuflment, audi have 
every reason to believe the people of 
those States would at once take part in 
the work of reconstruction, a solution of 
our diflfictil ties would be attained, and 
p^ace restored to the country. 

But if Congress will insist upon itg 
suicidal measures, if Congress is still 
determined to establish those govern- 
ments upon negro supremacy, then 
chaos comes again ; a war of races is in- 
evitable at the South. 

Mr. Alexander H. Stephens, one of 
tho ablest living men of the South, and 
who speaks from long and actual ob- 
servation, can — , 

"See notlilug in the policy of reconstruc- 
(ion but the operation of a fearl'til scheme, 
whose ultimate result will be thodestruoiioa 
of eitlier the black or the white race. Eve- 
ry day, it I ecoines more painfully evident 
that the estrangement between the races la 
wideniug— on the part of tlie negroes from 
the efTecis of sucii instrucTiou as teaches 
them to nistrust and oppose the whites, and 
on the part of the latter from an aljhorreiice 
of the negro leaders andan instinctiveaver- 
siou to be ruled and legislated for f)y igno- 
rance and seiMi-barbarism. From what fell 
under his own observation In GRorgia, ho 
was unable to detect anything Iikenspirit 
on either side tending to mntual sympathy 
of sentiment and interest. R-tdlcal emissa- 
ries from the Nortli have sown the sewls of 
evil dissension with a terril)le earnestness, 
and the diametric opposition of tlie races 
now visible «ll over the South must, in the 
very nature of things, lead, at soiae time or 
other, to fearlal coUislons. This inevitable 
result, as a dispassionate observer, forces 
itself irresistibly on his attention. A war 



of races, desired by somo, and Indifferently 
heeded by others, is, to bis riiiu(i,a cotise- 
qneiice assure to happen, under tbe Radical 
method of reeoastruutioii.asir is impossible 
to avoid, li the prenedeuts of liistory or the 
iijipiilses t'liat control human nature be 
talieu into account." 

And such is the united testimony of 
the intelligent men of the Sonth. 

But, sir, wh^ i^ress this nej^ro supre- 
macy over the whites? What reason 
can you give? I have heard three dis- 
tinct answers to this question worthy of 
notice: 

First, Because (he States of the South 
rejected the constitutional amendment 
submitted by Congress; 

Second. Because the negroes are loyal 
and the whites disloyal; and 

Third. Pljcause it will secure parly 
ascendancy. 

Let us consider the first, answer, that 
the States of the S^'Uth have rejected 
the constitutional amendment submit 
ted by the last Congress as, the basis of 
reconstruction. 

. I admit the Legislatures of all the 
Southern States rejected that amend- 
liient Willi great unanimity; Initisthat 
any sutflcient reason for the adoption of 
this hai.sh policy? I think not. In the 
first place, thatamendment contains one 
provision which made its adoption im- 
possible by the Southern people, at least 
until you change t^he human heart and 
destroy the sense of personal h'mor. It 
disfranchises from holding office all the 
men of the South in whom they had 
ever placed any public confidence— all 
who had ever held any ofHce, State or 
Federal. And' disfranchises them for 
what? For simply doing what they 
themselves had d*^ne. 

I can understand how one may say 
in argument that the leaders should be 
disfranchised. But how any man of 
common sense, or common "manhood, 
could ever suppose it possible for the 
people of the South to vote to disfran- 
chise men (esteemed by them as equal to, 
if not better than thernselves, for an of- 
fense of which they themselves w'ere 
equally guilty, is beyond my compre- 
hension. You ask the Southern j>eople 
to betray the m n whonj they trust. You 
ask them to dishonor tiiose whom they 
honor, to uproot the affection of years 
from their hearts. You ask. them to 
strike vv^ith a serpenVs tooth the liosom 
ofafrien-d. Until haman nature shall 
cease to be what God has made it, honor- 
able men could not do it; honorable 
m^n, to save themselves, to save evpn 
their lives, would not incur the guilt of 
such uniiiAtural treachery by votinijr for 
such a provision. When it wari pending 
before the Senate, June 8, ISG'J, I urged 
and implored Senators to allow the sev- 
eral provisions of that amendment to be 
separately submitted and "voted upon, 
and I warned the friends of the measure 
Uiat this provision would inevitably de- 
Ujat its adoption by every Southern 
Stat-e. But, sir, the majority were deaf 
to all appeals. The caucus had resolved ; 
the de'-'d was to be done; and it was done. 
On account, mainly, of that provision, 
the amendment was rejected almost 
unanimously by every Southern State. 



Asrain, when exa?nined morn ciosoly, 
we find that provision lequired thorn to 
vote to disfranchise Miou ands who had 
received pardon and amnesty, and a 
restoration to all their rights a''; citizens 
under the proclamations of President 
Lincoln and President Johnson, by vir- 
tue of a law of Congress, whi.h you 
yourselves enacted, which expressly 
authorized them to grant such p irdoii 
and amnesty jipon jiust such t-^rms as 
they th>u^ghl. proDpr. An atnendmont 
offered bv me in the Senate tlu! ."Ist of 
May, ISiiB, to except those men who had 
"duly received pardon and ainnosty 
under the Constitution and laws," was 
voted down by an unyielding mijority. 
I can never view this provision in any 
other light than a most palpable viola- 
tion of the plightwl faith of this Govora- 
mont given to tiJbso persons in the most 
solemn form. - ' 

If the Emperor -of Tlussia, by procla- 
mation, wc^re to grant a full pardon to 
such Poles as would tak^ an oatji of 
allej^aiico to hi.s crown, and if ho should 
af erwards deliberately biji^ak his word, 
what denunciations ' would be, and _ 
ojight to l)e, heaped upon his ]ie;ad by* 
th) civiliz':>d w-orld ! ' The periidy of 
surh an action would only be equaled 
by its folly as a muasuro of pacili';ation 
to Poland. Congres-! authoriziil the 
President to give pardon avid am siesty 
to thousands whom Congress now calls 
upon the people of the South to vote to 
disfranchise. 

Again, sir, there is another feature of 
that pi-ovision which no sentiment of 
justice sjjould tolerate or excuse. lu 
that sweeping disfranchisement no dis- 
tinction whatever is made between th*se 
who voluntarily engaged and those wh9 
were compelled to engage in the .reijel- 
lion ; no distinction v/hatever between 
the innocent and the guilty. 

The Senate will ronionil)er that when 
this amendment was pending I olTered 
an amendment to restrict that disfran- 
chisement to tho.se who had voluntarily 
engaged in the rebellion; ami it was 
voted down by the same unyielding 
majority. 

Partisan zeal and party necessity may 
account fi:)r many thing.^. Bat"v;he"n 
the history of these times shall be writ- 
ten it wilt seem incredible to our pos- 
terity that learned men and al)le Sena- 
tors could evpr for ono moment bring 
thcm.siel vos to believe it possible that the 
people of the South would vote for such 
an amendment. 

Itcontiiins still another pbjectionffble 
feature in violation of an imp'U-tant 
print^iple in every good government, 
confounJing executive with legislative' 
duties. If there bo any prerogative 
which more than another pertains to 
the executive -in all Governments, an- 
cient and modern, that prerogative is 
the power of j^ardon. 

This amendment proposes to change 
tho Constitution so as to take that power 
away from the Executive and confer it 
upon the two Houses of Congress. It is 
revolutionary, and worse than that. It 
vetoes the power of clemency in ad- 
vance. It uof only takes that power 



from the President, but it takes it away 
from a rniijority of Con2:i'ess. It re 
quires two-tiiirds of both Houses in or- 
der to exercise the power of pardoji, the 
same niHJority which is necessary to 
pass a law over the Presidential veto. 
In wliat civilized Government upon 
earth was there ever su(;h a restriction 
upon tlie power of pardon? Can it be 
found even amont? the savage tribes? 

Sir, this aniendmont makes it impos- 
sible for a majority of the people of the 
United States, by the choice of a Presi- 
dent or by the election of the Houses of 
CongYess, to grant pardon and anniesty. 

I speak with all becoming respect f()r 
the opinions of others and for the sin- 
cerity of (heir motives. 1 know it never 
could have been intended, but judging 
this provision l)y its own words, stand- 
ing in its own light, it seems to be born 
of distrust in the intelligence and mag- 
nanimity of the people ; the offspring of 
coj\'ar<bce and revenge, of unforgiving 
bate and lust for political power. 

Ana is it because tbe Legislatures of 
•tbe South rejected such a proposition 
that Congress should now enforce tlifs 
policy and establish a combined negro 
and niiiilary desp<^)tism in ail the States 
of the SMith, and under its iron, heel 
tramijle in the dust our own race and 
kindred and people? 

Mr. President, Congress has proposed 
from t line to time many schemes, but 
they may all be resolved into two dis- 
tinct policies, radically opposed to each 
other. 

First. Rc^construction by the consti- 
tutional amendment on the white basis. 

Second. Reconstruction by negro suf- 
frage and military force. * 

The lirst assiimed that peace had come; 
that the States were in the Union, with 
govern 'nents organized, with Legisla- 
tures having power to ratify or reject 
constitutional amendments ; and, fur- 
thermore, that those governments were 
in the hands of white men, with power, 
as in ail the other States, to admit or to 
exclude negroes from suflrage. And, in 
case the amendment were adopted by 
three- fourths of the States, the only ef- 
fect of admitting or excluding negroes 
irom tlie ballot, in any State, would be 
to change its number of votes in the 
other House of Cougre&s, and in tae 
Electoral College. 

The second assumes that we are still 
at war ; tljat the Southern States are not 
States in the Union at all, but conquered 
provinces, with no Legislatures which 
c:vi either ratify or reject a constitiation- 
al amendment ; that the white people of 
these States shall no longer have nny 
power over the cjuestion of suffrage; 
that C^ingress by the bayonet will dis- 
franchise the whites and enfranchise the 
Vilacks ; and thus by military power and 
negro votes compel the adoption of a 
, new Union and a new Constitution. Be- 
cause tiiey rejected the constitutional 
amendment Congress now resorts to the 
bayonet and negro suffrage to compel 
its adoption. 

True, I admit they did reject the 



They could reject it in no other way, for 
it was only to their Legislatures that 
Congress submitted the question. But 
how could their Legislatnres reject it it 
they had no Legislatures at all? If they 
had Legislatures which could reject it 
they had Legislatures which could rati- 
fy it. To do either is tlie highest act of 
a' State Legislature, for it then acts upon 
the fundamental law not only of its own 
State and people, but of all the States 
and all the j^eople of the United States. 
Conceding they had power, as you 
claim, to reject your amendment, by 
what shadow of right do you deny to 
those Legislatures power to choose Sen- 
ators in tliis body? As well deny to a 
living body the right to breathe. 

But perhaps you say if they had ratifi- 
ed the amendment, then they had Legis- 
latures which had the right to vote. But 
as they voted to reject it they had no 
Legislatures, and no right to vote. In 
other words, if they voted with you they 
had a riglit to vote ; if they voted against 
you they had no right to vote at all. 

Again, sir; all the world knows tbe 
whole object of the war was to put down 
the rebellion and to maintain the union 
of States under the Constitution. Every 
ax:*t and resolve of Congress, every dol- 
lar spent, every blow struck, every drop 
of blood shed, was to coiTipel the [feople 
and tbe States of the South to live in the 
Uni(.>n and obey the Constitution. And 
now that we have succeeded, now that 
the people and the States of the South 
have surrendered to the Constitution 
and lavi's, you say they shall not live in 
the Union under this Constitution at all. 
They shall lirst form another Union, and 
come into flsat Union under another or 
amended Constitution. 

Mr. President, having thus shown that 
this lirst answer to that question is un- 
reasonable, inconsistent, and absurd, I 
repeat the question a second time. Why 
press this negro domination over the 
whites of the South? What reason can 
you give? 

A second answer is, because the 
negroes were loyal and the whites dis- 
loyal. Let us examine this bold asser- 
tion. Is it true? Were the negroes 
loyal during the rebellion? Recall the 
faffts. Who does not remember that at 
least three-fourths of all the negroes in 
those States during the whole war did 
all in their power to si;stain the rebel 
cause? They fed their armies; they 
dug their trenches ; they built their for- 
tifications; they fed their women and 
cliildren. There were no insurrections, 
no uprisings, no effort of any kind any- 
where outside the lines of our armies 
on the part of the negroes to aid* the 
Union cause. In whole districts, in 
whole States even, where all the able- 
bociied, white men were conscripted into 
tho rebel army, the great mass of 
negroes, of whose loyalty you boast, 
under the control of women, decrepid 
old men and boys, did all they were ca- 
pable of doing to aid the rebellion. 
Again, sir, the assumption is equally 
groundless that the whole of the white 



amen(bncnt. But how did they reject | population, or a majority even, ever 
it? By the votes of their Legislatures, voluntarily engaged in the rebellion. II 



Is true, the great ranjority ip the end 
■were compelled to acquiesce ; but it was 
not until after the Fednal Government, 
speaking through President Buchanan, 
had abandoned the loyal people of the 
South and declared that neither the 
President nor Congress had the power to 
make war to compel the States to re- 
main in the Union; in a word, it was 
not until after President Buchanan, in 
bis messay-ecf December, ISOO, declared 
that this Government had neither the 
right nor the power to defend itself 
from overthrow at the bauds of the radi- 
cals of the South that a majority of the 
Soulheju people- were disposetl to con- 
sent to fctcesbion, nor did they even then 
acquiesce in rebellibn unlil hostilities, 
actually begun, bad organized an irre- 
sistible military power over them. Then 
the majority were compelled to suc- 
cumb. 

It should not bo forgotten that alle- 
gianco ou the part of the citizen and pro- 
tection on the part of tho Governiusnt 
are correlative duties. Has a Govern- 
ment the right bo demand the one if it 
do not atFord the other? Has;; it the right 
to punish tho ciiiz'»n for yielding to a 
superior force against which it makes 
no attenjpt to protect birr.? Such si 
claim vv(;uld be monstrousl3' unjust. 

_W(^ know very wctl that the radicals 
of the S>uta had a, powerful organiza- 
tion. They were as bold, as earnest, as 
reckless of consequences and as restive 
under Constitutional restraints as the 
boldest oi the present Radicals of the 
Nortix. 

Mr. NYE. With the permission of 
the honorable Senator from Wisconsin, 
I should like to know what he means by 
"the RiUJicals of tho South?" 

Mr. DOOHTTLE, I mean the seces- 
feionists. 
Mr. IIYR. Ah ! 

Mr. DOOLIITLE. I will not leave 
you to mi;^ui:derstand, sir, to whom I 
reler. 

Mr. SU:.IN"ER. I should like to ask 
the Senator what is his authority for the 
esprei-sion ? 

Mr. DOO LITTLE. As I perceive that 
my honorable friend from Massachu- 
setts proposes to enter upon this) discus- 
sion, I trtist he will alhnv nje to finish 
what I have to say, and then he will 
have an;pie opportunity tQ be heard. 1 
shall reler to several things ])efore I get 
through that will perhaps attract his 
attention. 

I was speaking of the radicals of the 
Soutft and the extremestK;idieals of the 
North, and I say they are similar in all 
the main elements of charaetei-, cher- 
ishing eveii to fanaticism opposite ex- 
tremes of opinion, equally removed 
from the trutii. Had they'exchanged 
places and educatio>,s, in all human 
probability the Radical of the 'North 
would have been a most violent radical 
at the South, and the radical of the 
South au equally violent Radical at the 
North. 

Mr. President, it is a striking fact, 
showing how easily extremes sometimes 
meet, that the radical cry of the seces- 
sionis,t3 of IcuO is identical ''with that^f 



the Northern Radical of to-day, name- 
ly, "The Union is broken; tho Consti- 
tution in all the States of tho South ia 
gone. Down with the old Union, down 
with the old Constittition ; wo are out- 
side the Union and outside the Consti- 
tution ; we will have a new Union and 
a new Constitution to suit ourselves or 
we will have none at all." Tho cry was 
the same, the purpose the same— ooliti- 
cal power. The radicals of the South 
raised that cry to build un their power 
upon negro slavery ; tho Radicals of the 
North to build up their powt-r upon ne- 
gro supremacy, upheld by the bayonet. 
And, sir, shall we make no allowance 
for the great mass of the Southern people 
who, by force, by terror, bv persuasion, 
by the abandoumentof the Government, 
and by all the excitements, passions, 
and necessities of actual war, were 
■plunged into that terrible conflict by the 
radicals of the South, as by a power 
they could not control? We all know 
tho induence over any party or commu- 
nity of asmall, well organized minority, 
strong in will and reckless of conse- 
(Tuences. What have wo seen in the 
Republican party itself within the last 
three years? 

We have seen a comparatively small . 
number of earnest Radicals reverse 
and absolutely overturn from its foun- 
dations the policy of reconstruction 
adopted by Mr. Lincoln before his re- 
election, and sustained by theconventioa 
which renominated him and the party 
which re elected him in 1804. Hispolicy 
was reconstruction upon the white basis. 
The negro was excluded altogether. 
_ Even the Wade and Davis reconstruc- 
tion bill, which passed Congress by Re- 
pubjican votes, and which xMr. Lincoln 
refused to sanction, but not for that rea- 
son, confined reconstruction to the white 
basis alone. It excluded all negro suf- 
fryge. It left that question, where it be- 
longs, to tho white race to determine in 
each State for itself. 

Upon this subject I quote and adopt 
tho language of the Senator from Indi- 
ana [Mr. Mof.TON] while Governor of 
that State : 

"I call your ntfention to the 'act that Cou- 
s;ress uiself, wh«ri it assimiMi to tal;o the 
whole question of recon.stri' jtlou out of the 
lip.iids of the President, expressly e.'Jcluded 
the ue^ro from the rii;htot snffrage in vo- 
tmg tor tho men who were tofsame tlie new 
consiiratioiis for th« rebel Suites." 

* * * * S: il: *:!»** 

"If Mr. Lincoln had not, refused to sign 
that bill there woulil today be an act of 
(-'ongiess ou the staiute-books absolutely 
prohibiting ne:;roes ironi any participatioa 
in the work of reoi-ijanization, and pled-iing 
the Government in advance to accept of the 
constitutiouH ttiat mig t 1)g formed uuder 
the bill, iilthouiih they made no provision 
tor the negro beyond the lact of his personal 
liberty." 

I repeat, we have seen a little handful 
of Radicals, by their boldness^ persist*, 
ency, and force, persuade, cajole, or drive ' 
the great majority of tho Republican 
party away Irom their own avowed pol- 
icy of reconstruction upon the white 
basis, and compel them to adopt thcpol- 
icy,of universal negro suffrage, to estab- 
lish negro governments, and now, at 



■< 



last to propose in the bill on your table 
an absoliue military dictatorbbip in all 
the States of the Soulb. I shall say no- 
ihiug unkind of the Senator from Indi- 
ana ; I admit his patriotism and emi- 
nent abilities and liis almost incompar- 
able services during the late war to put 
down the rebellion. But if anything 
were wanting to demonstrate the power 
which these Radicals have had over the 
mass of the Republican party in chang- 
ing their opinions and reversing their 
policj', we have only to point to theable 
Senator Irom ludiijna himself, once 
among the most powerful advocates of 
the Lmcoln Johnson policy ol restora- 
tion upon the white basis, now bound 
hand and foot, and dragged in ohaina 
at the victorious chariot wheels, to grace 
the triumph of Wendell Phillips and the 
Senator from Massachusetts, [Mr. Sum- 
mer.] Even his great mind now lends 
its powerful inlluence to favor the estab- 
lishment of governments leased upon 
viniversal negro suli'rage, to hold, it may 
be, the balance of power in this Repub- 
lic under the control of the bayonets of 
the regular Army. 

I well remember the effect produced 
by the speech of the Governor of Indi- 
ana in 18G5. It carao at a lime to be 
most gratefully remembered by me, for 
I was engaged in a struggle at that time 
against ihe Radicals m my own State, 
to ijrevent them from changing the 
creed and reversing tl^e policy upon 
which the Union party fought and mas- 
tered the rebellion, and by which alone 
their. victory was achieved. I endea- 
vored to demonstrate the same truths 
set forth in tliat great speech, and wheo 
it came, with its irresistible eloquence 
and unanswerable force of 'argument, I 
rejoiced to lean upon his strong arm for 
support. Like him, I had on more than 
ov.e occasion attempted to prove that 
Mr. Johnson inherited and was faitk- 
fally carrying out the policy of his pre- 
decessor. We did not then have the 
positive testimony of General Grant and 
of Mr. Stanton to prove that Mr. John- 
son's North Carolina proclamation was 
drawn by Mr. Stanton and read over in 
Mr. Lincoln's Cabinet. Had those facts 
then appeared it might have saved that 
honorable Senator and myself the labor 
of proving tho identity of the policy of 
Mr. Johnson with that of Mr. Lincoln, 
which the Governor of Indiana demon- 
strated in a manner so complete tha* iio 
man has ever been able to answer him. 
I do not doubt his patriotism nor his 
sincerity. But of all surrenders to the 
Radical negro-suilrago policy of recon- 
struction, none filled me with so much 
surprise, none gave me so much pain, 
as vbat of the honorable Senator from 
Indiana, except one. I refer to General 
Grant. 

Again, sir, if it were true that the 
whites were disloyal during the rebel- 
lion, they are not rebellious now. Re- 
bellious cannot exist or continue with- 
out real or supposed cause. Slavery, 
the cause and the pretext for the lato re- 
bellion, is gone forever. It can never 
be revived. Nothing can incite another 
rebellion at the Soatti, for ibey have uo 



power to organize one against the Gov- 
ernment, and will not have for many 
years to come. 

upon this point allow me to r^ad an 
extract from a letter of Hon. Benjamia 
Fitzpatrick, formerly the Presidiug Of- 
ficer of tliis body, and known by all the 
older Senators as being opposed to se- 
cession, a gentleman of the highest 
honor and undoubted integrity. Hear 
what he says : 

"It is said by some that it was made to 
ke'p down rt-bellion. What have tlie people 
ot t lie Soutli to C'Miimenee »i- carry oa a. re- 
bellion willi? Our slaves are all set free- 
onr fields barely cultivated under the new 
syrnteiu of labor, and many of thera grown 
up in briars und weeds since i-mancipalion, 
and almost everytliins in a state of uilapi- 
datioii aud decay. The cry for bread wluch 
comes up from ahnost every hill and valley 
in the Slate has scarcely ceased ririgin^ m 
our ears, and it was only hushed ny the lib- 
eral donations from thebeuev(jlent of me 
North aud West. No people of the Old 
World in auy of their long aud desolating 
wars ever lons^ed for peace more than we 
do We want peace, but not degradation. 
We wish to 1)6 left free to act for ourselves, 
and free from the intermeddling of those 
who do not live among us, but come here 
to fomeiat discord and speculate upon our 
troubles." 

Sir, this is the language of one who 
knows the white people of the South 
aud speaks for them. 

And why, sir ; why should they not 
desire peace? For that rebellion, into 
which in an evil hour the radicals of 
the South plunged them, they have been 
punished already by the sacrifice of aii 
their slave property, valued at three to 
four thousand miilion dollars ; by the 
saci-ifica of more than three-fourths of 
all other personal property, probably 
two thousand millions more; by the 
sacrifice of their public and private 
credits— at least a thousand millions 
more; by the depreciation of the value 
of all their real estate at least seventy- 
five per cent.— amounting probably to 
more than two thousand million dollars 
inore— making ki all a sacrifice of prop- 
erty, credits, and values in the Southern 
States alone of at least nine thousand 
million dollars. 

But there is another blor dy and terri- 
ble page in this account— a page in ac- 
count with death. It is estimated there 
have perished in battle, by disease, ex- 
posure, or other cause incident to the- 
war, at least three hundred thousand 
able-boilied men of the South. I take 
uo account of the unutterable anguish 
of millions of crushed and bleeding 
hearts. No language can express, no 
figures measure that. For that rebel- 
lion the whlto men of the South have 
been most terribly punished! Nino 
thousand millions of values, are gone- 
lost Ibrever 1 Three hundred thousand 
able-bodied white men of the tlower 
and strength of tho South now lie in 
their bloody or premature graves ! 
Greau (xod ! Is not this })unishmeufc 
enougfi? Must we go further ? Must 
we now punish the white men. of the 
South bv placing them under the domi- 
nation o'^f half-civilized Alricans? And. 
in order to do that shall we punish our- 
selves by giving over to stolid and 



brutish ignorance the political control 
of one-fourth of the States, «nd, it may 
be, under the control of the Army the 
balance of power in the United States? 
Shall we Aliicanize the South aod Mex- 
icanize the whole Republic? 

I know these measures of Congress 
have done much to wound, nothing to 
heal. Yet, notwithstanding all that 
Congress has done to embitter their 
hatred toward the Radical policv, tliere 
is neither thought nor wish nor "hope to 
restore slavery, nor to separate from the 
Union, nor of rebellion against the au- 
thority of the Government; all evidence 
proves the contrary. 

In the wliole rebel army which s\ir- 
renderod I ciiallenge anv Senator to 
point me to a single instance in which a 
rebel oiiicer has violated his parole; or 
to a single man, of any position or pro- 
luiueuce at the South, who after taking 
the oath of allegiance has violated bis 
plighted iViitb. 

ISO man can more deeply feel than I 
do the great and monstrous folly and 
crime of that rebellion, which iirought 
so much of agony and of blood upoirall 
parts of oar k)eloved land, which robbed 
us of onr sons and dearest kindred and 
tlirew a shade Of sorrow over onr hearts 
which will never pass away until they 
cease to beai. Bu't, now that blood has 
ceased to fliow ; now that three years of 
peace have elan'sed ; now that the whole 
South has surrendered and every inter- 
est they have or can hope for is to be 
found ui tbo Union and under the Con- 
stitution : now that they have in good 
laith pledged anew their allegiance, and' 
desire to join with us in reiniiming the 
Avaste places overrun by this desola.ting 
war ; now that they have, in fact, ceased 
to be rebels, why shall we continue to 
denounre them as rebels, anil do all in 
our power to compel them to be rebels, 
.'Hid to remain rebels and enemies for- 
ever? !•* thf'.t the way to restore pros- 
perity ? Is that the course of wise states- 
mans, .ip? Will that bring permanent 
peace ? 

Sir, let me put the extremest case. 
Suppor^e that these States of the South 
betore the war had been foreign States, 
and thcit we had conquered tliem bv 
arms; would not wise statesmen adopt 
the policy of conciliation? Would not 
they treat them as friends and make 
them teilow-citizens at the earliest pos- 
sible moment? How much more earn- 
estly should we adopt that policv be- 
cause from the beginning we have al- 
ways declared that our purpose was not 
to subjugate but to maintain the Union 
with the equality and rights of the States 
unimpaired. 

We had a war with Mexico, resuUiag' 
in the ac(]iiisiiion of people and territo- 
ry. By treaty the people were made 
citizens at on<'e, wnlh all the rights of 
citizens. We have had wars with Eng- 
lishmen ; but when the bloody .strife 
was over, when peace had conae, what 
course did our great ancestors pursue? 
We all know the war of the Revolution 
was a civil war. During the strife, ci^n- 
nscation and disfranchisement were the 
order of the day. But when peace came 



and they sought to lay the foundations 
of the Republic broad and deep, what 
did they do? Do you find in the Con- 
stitution they formed or the laws they 
passed under it any. test-oaths; any bills 
of attainder; any ex post facto laws; 
any military reconstruction bills? No, 
sir. No; they were too great aud too 
wise. They had too much laith in man, 
and liberty, and truth, and God for that. 
On the contrary, they declared that no 
bills of attainde'r, no ex post facto law? 
should be passed; no man not in the 
military or naval service should l)e sub- 
ject to military trials under the arbitra- 
ry power of the bayonet ; and that even 
for treason itself there should be no 
corruprtion of blood or forfeiture beyond 
the life of the guilty party; and, fur- 
thermore, that no man should be con- 
victed except upon presentment bv a 
grand jury and after a fair trial, con- 
fronting his accusers, by the verdict of 
a jury of his peers. 

In the Declaration of Indcpendehce, 
also, even in the midst of war, reason 
remained supreme over passion. They 
ware equal to the grand ocoasiion. In 
one of its sublimest sentences they de- 
clared they would hold the people of 
England, their fellow-countrymen, with 
whom they were then engaged in civil 
war, as they did the rest of mankind, ' 
"enemies in war, in peace, frionds." If 
we cannot equal them, may v/e not en- 
deavor to follow their example? 

What do the great examples o-f history 
teach us in dealing with rtbRllions if 
not that, after force has been subdued by 
force, magnanimity is more j^owerful 
than revenge; that love conquers wJiat 
hate never can— the hearts and atfections 
of a people? 

When Latium, one of the Roman pro- 
vinces, revolted, and the revolt was put 
down by arms, the question arose in the 
Roman Senate, what shall be done with 
Latium and the people of Litium? 
There were some then who cried, "dis- 
franchise them ;" others said, •'coutis- 
cate their property." There were none 
who said, "subject them iti vassalage to 
their slaves." 

But old Camillus, in that speech which 
revealed his greatness and made his 
name immortal, said: "Senators, make 
them your fellaw-citizons, and thus add 
to the power and glory of Rovno." In 
this high place, in this Senateofth-> great 
Repv'.blic of the world, outgrowth of the 
civilization of all the ages, cannot we. 
Senators, rise to the height of that great 
argument? 

To descend to humbler examples, 
may wo not even take lessons from some 
of our Indian tribes? It is well known 
that the civilized tribes of the Indian 
territory took sides in our terrible con- 
flict. Civil war hi ils direst and 
most savage form raged through all 
their country. Their dwellings' were 
sacked and burned ; their hands were 
red in each other's blood. Ynt they have 
made peace. Tfiey have reorganized 
their governments, They now live 
side by side in perfect tran,quility. Pros- 
perity is once more smiling upon tbeil 
beautiful land. Cannot Christian states- 



men have equal faith in magnanimity — 
equal courajie to forgive and to believe 
that loTt' is the power by which to reach 
the hearts ot our late enemies? 

But, sir, .suppose the statement be 
true ibat the nej^roes are loyal and the 
whites disloyal in heart, have we even 
then the iv^iii to degrade the whites in 
vassalage to the negroes? I answer no. 
For then- criminal acts we would liave 
the legal right to try and convict and 
sentence to imprisonment and to death 
even. But now, without trial, l)y what 
operates as a sul>stantial bill of attain- 
der and (Xpust facto at that, to subject 
them to negro governments is a crime 
against the Constitution, against our 
own race, and against civilization itself. 
It is to iuiiiose upon them against tlieir 
Afill a di gradation which every Siate 
of the North would reject, and one ten- 
fohi greater than has ever been attempt 
eii in any Northern State. It would 
nialie Ihem unfit to be our fellow-citi- 
7.ens, and place the States of the South 
iipon a footing inferior to that of the 
otner Slates in the Union. 

Sir, we claim to have fought for liber- 
ty and against slavery. The issue of 
ISGO was the extension of slavery into 
the Teiritories, By the election of Mr. 
Lincoln the peojile of the United States 
oecided tigainst that. The radicals of 
the South, another name for the seces- 
sionists, lebelled against that decision 
'..nd eu(ica\ orcd to reverse it by arms. 
Tliat reheliion raised another and greater 
issue — the existence of the Government 
itself. It als'o ]>laced at stake slavery iu» 
all the States. By the re-election of Mr. 
Lincoln. i;i 1SG4 the people decided in 
favor of a vigorous prosecution of the 
war until every rebel should lay down 
bis arms, and also in (avor of an amend- 
ment to-, the Constitution to abolish 
slavery in all the States and Territories 
forever. * 

At present, what do we behold ? Now 
that the war is over, how that every re- 
l)el has laid down iiis arms, now that 
the people of thfc South have unani- 
inoijsly agreed to abolish slavery for- 
ever, to obey the Constituti(in and di.'^ 
charge every duty as citizens of the 
United States, the Radicals of the North 
have nioially begun a new rebellion 
against the Union and the Constitution ; 
for, raisinjc anew the old cry of the radi- 
cals of the South, they now declare tliat 
the States of the South are outsido the 
Constitution, and that Congress, acting 
outside the (.Jonstitution, has unlimited 
power ov( r them as over conquered ter- 
ritories. In their blind zeal for the ad- 
vancement of the negro they propose to 
overthrow the Consiitution in order to 
practically sul>ject the white race to the 
aominatiun of the negro. 

As men who claim to be the friends of 
liberty, we have no right to do that. 

As Chrisiifius who claim to have 
learned something of forgiveness from 
the tea(;hing.s of our gjaviour, we have 
no right to do that. 

As members of that great Caucasian 
race which has given the world its civ- 
ilization, Vvc have no right to do that. 

As state !!rnsa who desire to restore the 



blessings of peace, we have no right to 
do that which would inevitably make 
eight millions of our own race and kin- 
dred in our own land eternal enemies of 
the Government. 

As states.men who, with ordinary sa- 
gacity, should look to the future and to 
possible wars with foreign Powers, we 
ought to make haste to restore senti- 
ments of affection and patriotism in all 
that vast region, larger and richer by 
far in natural resources than England, 
France, and Prussia all combined. 

And I ask, Mr. President, with all the 
earnestness of which the soul is capa- 
ble, can any human being c/mceive of a 
measuro so well ctlculated to make the 
whole white people of the South, men, 
women, and children, hate and loathe 
our Government, to hate it with a per- 
fect hatred, to gather around the family 
aktar upon their bended knees to curse 
it, and in the agony of prayer to call 
upon God to curse it, as this Radical re- 
construction which seeks to disfranchise 
the heart and brain of the South, and to 
subject at the point of the bayonet the 
white race to the dominion of their late 
half-civilized African slaves? Instead, 
of peace it gives them a sword ; instead 
of hope it tills them with despair; in- 
stead of civil liberty it gives them mili- 
tary desiDotism. V/hite disfranchise- 
ment and negro domination was the 
idea which inspired and prov^oked the 
riot at New Orleans. It has arrayed 
everywhere the blacks and whites in 
hostility to each other, often resnltiug 
in bloodshed all over the South. It 
tends directly to bring on that war of 
races which in the West ladies enacted 
scenes of horror to sieken and appal the 
world. 

That war is now impending over all 
the South — it is only the presence of the 
Federal Army which prevents its out- 
break upon a gigantic scale — a war 
which, once begun, will end, I fear, in 
the exile or extermination of the blacks 
from tho Potomac to the Rio Grande. I 
know the Senator from Ohio, [Mr. 
Wade,] in a speech in. the late canvass, 
had no fears of such a war or of its re- 
sults. Ho is reported to have said, "let 
that war come; let them fight it out." 
God grant that war may never come! 
Rirt, if it doe^ come, no amount of mil- 
itary discipline can compel the white 
men of the North to take part in the 
massacre of their own race and kindred. 
Mr. President, having considered at 
.some length the second ausv.rer to my 
question, and finding that it is not sus- 
tained by the facts', that it is bad in 
principle and worse in policy, I repeat 
the question a third time— why press 
this negro supremacy over the whites 
of the 'South? What reason can you 
give ? 

The leader of the Radical forces— that 
inexorable Moloch of this new rebellion 
against the Constitution, 
" The strongest and the fiercest spirit 
That f(jui;Lii iu heaven, now fiercer by de- 
spair," 
answers with holdness, anjl in plain 
English gives the true rea.son namely, 
to secure party ascendancy. This is the 



10 



third and last answer which I propose to 
consider on this occasion. On the 3d of 
January, 1867, Mr. Stkvenp, in the 
House of Representatives, used this lan- 
guage, which I find reported in the 
Globe : 

"Another good reason is, it would insure 
the ascendancy of the Union party. Do you 
avow the party purpose, exclaims some hor- 
ror-stricken demagogue ? I do." 

The party purpose is here avowed in 
the Honse, In his sj^eeches and letters 
elsewhere Mr. SxEVJiNS again and again, 
in stronger language, avows the real 
purpose of this legislation, to them I 
mainly refer. The negroes, under the 
tutillage of the Freedmen's Bureau, led 
by Rgxlical emissaries, or pushed by 
Federal bayonets, must take the politi- 
cal control of these States in order to ob- 
tain their votes in the Electoral College 
or in the House of Representatives ih 
the election of the next President. Hefe 
is a reason, and just snch a reason as the 
bold Radical wonld give. It is in keep- 
ing with his revolutionary measures, 
and in keeping with his own revolution- 
ary history. 

The letter of General Pope, when in 
.command of one of tl^e districts, recent- 
ly published, draws aside the vail aud 
discloses the fact that the same party 
purpose seeks to control the bayonet 
also. 

This argument, for party ascendancy; 
all can understand. It is bold, clear, 
and logical. It is the argument of ne- 
cessity addressing itself to unscrupulous 
ambition. One syllogism contains the 
whole of it: " We must," says the Rad- 
ical, "elect the next President. The ne- 
groes, under the lead of our Bureau or 
the control of otir bayonets, will vote 
for our candidate. The whites, outraged 
by our attempt to put the negro over 
them, will vote against him. Therefore 
the bayonet must place the negro in 
power in these iStates to give us seventy 
electoral votes for President, twenty 
Senators and fifty members of the 
House," 

All honor to the Radical chief, the 

;5reat Commoner,- who, with all his faults, 

. is too gr 3at a man to resort to subterfuge 

or shams, or attempt to conceal this real 

purpose in this legislatiou. 

Some who favor these measures do not 
admit his leadership. But the truth is, 
in somfe way or other he does lead or 
drive the Radical party in the end into 
the support of all his revolutionary 
schemes. Now and then one shrinks 
back. More than once T have seen the 
"galled jade wince," but never fail at 
the last to obey the lash of her master. 
Would to heaven it were otherwise! 
Would to heaven that the Radical 
party could patise and modify its sui- 
cidal policy ! But I fear the majority 
have become bound to it— bound hand 
and foot with chains they cannot break ; 
that, however much some may regret it 
or strive to conceal regret, political ne- 
cessities compel yott to go on, and right 
on to the bitter end. You have staked 
your all upon it. You must live or die 
by it, » 

The Senator from Massachusetts, [ Jlr. 



Wilson,] as if by authority, says, " We 
will take no step backward." Mr. ' 
Colfax, in his recent letter, re-echoes, 
"Not a hair's breadth." Such, I fear, 
is the fatal resolution taken by the ma- 
jority. 

The result of the recent elections, 
showing that a majority in the Northern 
and Western States is opposed to that 
policy, so far from changing a resolu- 
tion from which the Radical party daro 
not retreat, is pushing it on to the mad- 
ness of despair. It sees that its majori- 
ty in the North and West is already lost 
It dare not exclude the South in the 
next election. The South mtist be 
forced at the point of the bayonet, by 
white disfranchisement and negro sitf- 
frage, to vote for the Radical candidate, 
or he will be beaten. The majority i^ 
the Northern and Western States against 
him must, therefore, be overcome by 
the negro votes of the South, 

Sir, we shall see if the people of the 
United States will allow the rogular 
Army, which now controls this ignorant 
negro vote iu the South, to hold the 
balance of power in the Reptiblic and 
to elect to the Presidency the candidate 
of negro supremacy, upheld by military 
despotism. Shall Pretorian bands con- 
trol the Presidency, as in the degenerate 
days of Rome they set up the empire 
for sale ? I am no prophet ; taut, if not 
mistaken in the signs of the times, the 
American people are not yet prepared 
for that. The Democratic party, every- 
where freeing itself from the errors of 
the past, planting itself upon the living 
"issues of the hour, welcomiug into its 
ranks all who are opposed to this Radi- 
cal and barbarian policj"- of sttbjecting 
the States of the South to negro supre- 
macy by military dictatorship, all who 
are in favor of maintaining the integri- 
ty of the Union, the rights of the States, 
aijd the liberties of the people under 
the Constitution, and all who neither 
admit the doctrine.of Southern radical- 
ism which brought on this rebellion, 
that a State may secede from the Union, 
nor admit thai other doctrine of the 
Northern Radical, no less revolutionary, 
that Congress may exclude or disfran- 
chise ten States from the Union, are 
now coming together upon the platform 
of the fathers of tbo Constitution, and 
in the same fraternal spirit iu which it 
was formed, and by which alone it can 
be maintained. 

Sir, there are times when public opin- 
ion is like a placid stream gently flow- 
ing within its banks, when slight obsta- 
cles may for a time arrest or change or 
divert its course. Then, it may be said, 
the voice of the people is the voice of 
politicians; the voice of the people is 
the will of a party. But there are other 
times when the "heavens are overcast, 
the rains have descended,. and the floods 
have come, tliat its majectic current rolls 
on, emblem of wrathand power, when 
resistance maddens its fury and in- 
creases its strength. Then it overflows 
its banks. Tho'l^arriers of party cau- 
cusses and politicians are all swept away 
and become mere flood-wood on the 
surface of the troubled waters. The 



11 



voice of the people then is no longer the 
voice of politici'aus ; then it is ti^at tiie 
voice of the people is the voice of God. 

Sir, we have passed through such 
crises in our day. You well remember 
■when a feeble minority in this body 
raised its voice against that overbearing 
majority which, under the dictation of 
Southern radicals sought to force a 
State government, with negro slavery, 
upon the people of Kansas against their 
will. That monstrous wrong atirrnd the 
Ijearts of the people* to their very depths, 
and party lines unci party names were 
forgotten. Party ties were sundered 
like flax at the touch of Are. You re- 
member that, sir. 

Again, when these same radicals of 
the South, bocauso the people of the 
North mdignantly refused to sanction 
the subjuizatiou of Kansas, rose in arn^s 
to destroy the Union and the Constitution, 
what become of party then. The peo- 
ple rose as one man. Largo masses of 
the Democratic party gave their political 
support to the administration of Mr, 
LXrcoin, forming the Union Republi- 
can party ; and to their eternal honor be 
it said that the great mass of the Demo- 
ci-atic party, with some exceptions, gave 
to his war measures a hearty and un- 
flinching support. Without that sup- 
port the war would have been a failure. 

In the actual prosecution of the war, in 
the camp and on the field of battle, in the 
rank and tils, as well as in command, 
we found no distinction whatever. 
Shoulder to shoulder Democrats and 
Republicans stood together like brothers 
on every battle-tield from the beginning 
to the end of the rebellion. To defend 
the Union and the Constitution against 
overthrow by Southern ladicalism,. in 
arms against them, they braved every 
danger and endured every hardship. 
Together they stood in the day of the 
conflict, freely bared their bosoms in 
each other's defense : together often 
their life's blood gushed and mingled, 
and side by side they now sleep their 
last sleep in their honored graves. 
There they will sleep together till Heav- 
en calls them to their reward. 

And now, sir, what do wo behold? A 
dominant majority in this Senate and in 
Congress, under the lead of Northern 
Radicalism, at the point of the bayonot 
lurcing negro suffrage and negro gov- 
ernments upon ten States of the Union 
and six million peopleagainsttheir will. 
What WHS the outrage upon Kansas 
compared to that? Wo see therii prac- 
ticiiliy dissolving the Union by exclu- 
ding ten States from the Union, thus 
doing what the rebellion could never do 
and v,iiat we spent §5,000,000,000 and five 



hundred thousand lives of our best and 
bravest to prevent. For long months 
wo have se<?n them encroaching steadily 
and persistently upon the just rights of 
tho Executive ; and now, to rivet their 
chains upon us and to crown the whole 
of their usurpations, they propose to 
subjugate the Supreme Court ; to over- 
turn justice in her sacred spat in this 
tribunal of last resort. They would 
compel the court whose office it is to 
hold an even balance between the States 
on the one hand and the Federal Gov- 
ernment on the other, and also between 
the several. dpp.irtVnents of the Govern- 
ment, to place false weights in the bal- 
ances. They woiild make the weight of 
the opinions of tluee judges in favor of 
the usurpations of Congress more than 
equal the weight of the opinions of tive 
judges in favor of the rights of other 
departments, the rights of the States, 
and the liberties of the people. 

Sir, we are in the midst of a new re- 
bellion, bloodless as yet, but which 
threatens to destroy the Constitution, 
and with it the last hope of civil liber- 
ty for the woild. But let us not despair. 
Let us not surrender our faith in the 
people aor our faith in republican insti- 
tutions. The people everywhere are 
coming to the rescue. They are again 
rising above party and the clamors and 
denunciations of partisans. Hundreds 
and thousands of the earnest Republi- 
cans who supported Mr. Lincoln's Ad- 
ministration have already severed their 
relations to this revolutionary party. 
Hundreds ov thousands more are ready 
todpsoandto strike hands with the 
great mass of the Democratic party to 
rescue the Constitution from this new 
reliellion against it. 

Yes, sir, they are organizing every- 
where, from Maine to California, not 
upon the dead issues of the past, for in- 
glorious defeat. There is too much at 
stake, and they are too terribly in ear- 
nest for that. But with living men,' 
upon the living issues of the present, 
they will organize for a victory so com- 
plete and overwhelming that the votes 
of the negro States of the South cannot 
hold the balance of power and decide 
the election against them. That same 
patriotism which led hundreds of thou- 
sands of Democrats to sustain the. Re- 
publican party in putting down the re- 
bellion of tho Southern radicals will 
now lead hundreds of thousands of Re- 
publicans to act with tho Demooratic 
[larty to overcome the no less dangerous 
(lot!lrines of the Radicals of the North. 
They are fighting in the same cause oi' 
of the Union and the Constitution, and 
for the spirit which gives them life. 



HON. HENRY STANBEEY 



Hon. HENRY STANBERY having 
been called ou to respond to the following 
toast : 

"The Constitution : Acompact of perpetual 
Union; wlieu disturbed ir, needs n« recon- 
struction, but only the removal of an ob- 
struction." 

Spoke as follows : 

Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen : I feel 
to-night something of the j«ove)ty and 
excitement of a new .situatiou. For the 
first time in mj^ life I lind myself an in- 
vited guest at a Democratic celebration. 
[Laughter.] I find my;?c]f here, not 
merely as one of the convives, bwt se- 
lected by the committee to respond to 
one of the regular toasts. I am remind- 
ed of tho old adage, that "politics, like 
poverty, sometimes brings us acquaint- 
ed with strange bedfellows." [Great 
laughter and cheering.] I trust, Mr. 
Chairman, that I may escape the charge 
of egotism if I takoafew mometits to ex- 
plain how it has happened that I never 
have been at a Democratic celebration in 
times past, and how it happens that I 
am here now. 1 feel that I do not speak 
for myself onlv, but for thousands of 
others, whose past and present political 
associations have been and are the same 
as mine. 

For more than thirty years I belonged 
to the Whig party, and fought in its 
ranks so long tliat I was cflassed as one 
of its "old guard." I was with it in its 
successes, which were few, and still con- 
stant to it in its reverses, which were 
many. I never deserted it while its or- 
ganization existed, and only ceased to 
be a Whig when the party itself ceased 
to exist. My last vote was given to that 
party in the Presiolential contest of ISGO. 
Then came tho rebellion, and with it a 
new is&ue, which overshadowed all for- 
mer party issues. I lost sight at once of 
all fornier political associations, and 
joiMed that great Union party which 
saved tho Republic. [Applause.] 

When that great fact was accomplish- 
ed, when the work of the soldier was 
done, and the work of the statesman was 
to bo resumed, a new question arose, 
only less in magnitude to that of the 
preservation of the nation, and that was, 
in what spirit and accodring to what 
policy the victorious North should deal 
•with those Southern States and that 
Southern people who had been engaged 
in insurrection. Thoy gave up the 
contest, and all tho issues of the con- 
test; they repealed their ordinances of 
secession ; they abolished the institu- 



tion of slavery; they repudiated the 
debt which they incurred in waging 
war, and again asked to come under the 
protection of the old Hag, to bo restored 
once more to the rights and privileges of 
American citizens. 

It did seem, at first, that the policy of 
forgiveness and restoration would pre- 
vail. It was inauRurated under the 
leadership of Mr. Lincoln, and he pro- 
posed in good faith to carry oat the 
jiiedges and hopes held ottt to tho South 
during the struggle — that the object of 
the war was not to destroy, but to pre- 
serve; that Southern States hud never 
lost their places in the Uni->n, but were 
only temporarily out of their proper re- 
lations, and that as soon as the war was 
over these constitutional relations should 
bo resuaied. But even before the death 
of Mr. Lincoln tbere was developed in 
the Republican party a formidable op- 
position to that policy ; and a new party 
was soon formed, which held that we 
had waged a war for conquest, and not 
lor restoration; that we had not n}ere!y 
put down an iustirrection, but that we 
had conquered provinces, not States, and 
a foreign jieople, not American citizens; 
that these States, instead of being re- 
stored, were to be reconstructed ; that aa 
conquered territory, Congress was to 
legislate in all their domestic concerns, 
and if ever they were again to become 
States of the Union, they v.' ere to come 
in by a new title, pre<'isely as in some 
future day we may choose to make a 
State of the newly acquired territory of 
Alaska. 

Gentlemen, the Constitution lathe text 
of the sentiment to which I have been 
ciilled upon to respond. Let usstopoue 
moment to look into that sacred instru- 
ment, in order to .solve the question 
which arises here. The case which has 
occurred is not, in the language of a 
lawyer, a casus emissus. The Constitu- 
tion is not silent. It has anticipated 
what has happened. It provides for in- 
surrection, whether small or great; 
whether of a part of a Slate or an entire 
State ; whether in one State or in naany. 
It provides for insurrection against the 
laws of a State, and for insurrection 
against the laws of the United States. It 
gives power in both case.? ; the power in 
one case to put down insurrection 
against the State by enforcing obedience 
to tho laws of the State ; and the- power 
in the other case to put down insurrec- 
tion against the laws of the United 
States by enforcing obedience to those 
laws. So, too, the Constitution gives 



18 



the power of protection against foreign 
enemies, and the power to declare war, 
and, as incidental to that, the poorer to 
make cono.utsts. 

Where, in this instrument, providing 
for the very case of insurreciion and for 
the very remedy to be applied — where 
do you tind power to put down insur- 
rection in a State, and then to destroy 
the State, and hold it and its people as 
conquered and subjugated ? And yet; 
gentlemen, this is precisely what has 
been done, not by a change of our Fede- 
ral Constitution, but by a Congress who 
must tind for every act a warrant and 
authority in the provision of that Con- 
stitution. The reconstruction acts passed 
by Congress have converted ten of these 
States into a lower condition than that 
of mere Territc ries, have destroyed every 
vestige of State government, and have 
stripj.ed millions of their people of ev- 
ery cjjaraclerjstic of an American cit- 
izen. Under this extiaordinarj' legisla- 
tion, the vast territory covered by these 
ten States, and the millions of unhappy 
people which reside there have no more 
protection under our Federal Constitu- 
tion than if they occupied so much ter- 
ritory in the interior of Africa. Their 
State constitutions— made by these peo- 
ple under the auspices of President Lin- 
coln and President Johnson — are declar- 
ed (o be ilJt^t^al, and, in cflect, abolished 
and in placo of them Congress has pro- 
vided a military despotism. Certainly, 
if no valid State law protected these peo- 
ple, there was, at least, Federal law 
which ought to have protected them, for 
over every footof that territory andevery 
individual that inhabits it, the greatfnn- 
damental law of the Constitution of the 
"United Slates prevails in all its vigor, 
and gives to every one of them evA-y 
I^riviloge and every immunity which it 
extends to the American citizen any- 
where and everywhere. 

With the Constitution, then, fu/ly in 
force over all that territory and all those 
people, where does Congress tind its 
warrant for supplanting a legal State 
government with a military despotism? 
W^here does Congress find its warrant, 
in time of peace, to suspend the habeas 
corpus, to take away the inestimable 
privilege of Iho trial by jury, to remove 
■ the civil officers of a State, and substi- 
tute Federal olljcers in their places ; 
and, tinally, to try, to condemn, to pun- 
ish, to inaprisou, to hang these people 
for civil oilences, or pretended offences, 
by thejudgmeut of a military cotirt? 
Where does Congress find its warrant in 
the Cinsiitution to cjuit the domain of 
Federal law, and to make a constitution 
for a State by voters of its own creating 
— to pass a suffrage law 'or o Stale? 
Where does ii tind authority to say who 
shall vote and who shall not vote in 
State elections? Lastly, where does it 
find authority to make a new class of 
citizens, and to give to that class of citi- 
zens greater rights than were ever con- 
ferred before by the Constitution upon 
any class, and to ty,ke away from tliose 
who always enjoyed the rights of citi- 
zenship the most precious of those 
rights ? 



Gentlemen, I have been at the bar for 
nearly half a century, and have been a 
constant student, not only of the com- 
mon law, but of our own constitutional 
law, and I do not hesitate toiyay tliat the 
whole of these reconstruction acts of 
Congress, from beginning to end — tirst, 
second, and third, in the series— are un- 
constitutional and void. There are 
times when to be silent is to be unfaith- 
ful. There are times when men viust 
speak out. I will not attempt to sch(X>l 
myself into reticence upon these great 
questions, and I could not if I v.'ould, 
, And now, my Democratic f; lends, you 
see the reason why I am here, and why 
your committee has contided in me so 
far as to ask mo to respond to one of the 
sentiments on your programme. [Ap- 
plause.] It is enough for uie to know 
that, upon the great questions of the 
day, and upon the great issues that are 
to be fougbt during this year, we have 
at last come together. Twenty years 
ago, if I had been told that the time 
would come when I would take an ac- 
tive part in a Democratic celebration, 
that the time would come in which I 
should rejoice at a Demecratic victory, 
I could scarcely have believed it possi- 
ble. In those forrner contests I thought 
the Democratic party always wrong, and 
the Whig party always right. But, 
gentlemen, the issues of those daj's were 
not like those that are belbre us. Doth 
parties fought under tl^e Constitution,^ 
md as yet we had no party outside of 
ihe Constitution. Not so with this new 
and dangerous party that now confronts 
us, old Whigs and old Democrats, under 
the name of Radicals. The time has 
come when we must strike hands, and, 
shoulder to shoulder, face the ommou 
enemy. We must meet that enemy to- 
gether and united, or the battle will be 
lost. [Cries of " We will," and great 
cheering.] 

I see that a distinguished Senator 
from Indiana, a few days ago, in an ad- 
dress delivered in this city beiore the 
Soldiers' and Sailors' Union, volun- 
teered to give a name to those who op- 
pose the Congressional policy, and to 
state of what materials the party was 
composed, and to fix tip t«bo issues for 
which the3^ were to contend in the ap- 
proaching Presidential contest. As lo 
the name, ho gives it under an alias, a3 
the Democratic or Conservative party; 
and he says it is composed of the North- 
ern Democrats who sympathized with 
secession and rebellion, of the Southern 
rebels, and of a "few recruits from the 
Republican party." Now, if he means, 
as I sup[)osohe does, that the recruits 
from the Republican party are those 
who voted with that party in the last 
Presidential election, how will the hon- 
orable Senator explain the last election 
which has taken place in Ohio, a Staie 
that lies so close to Indiana that lie can- 
not fail to have heard the result ? There 
were i)o, 000 Republican majority in that 
State in the Pr.esidential election of 18(M. 
There was only 3.000 Reptiblican major- 
ity given in that Slate at the last elec- 
tion for Governor, in 18G7; so that there 
were fully 45,000 recruits in that State 



14 



RloTie. But this is not all. To these 
45,000 must be added 26,000 more who 
voted against the Republican party at 
the same election upon the vital ques- 
tion of uuiversal negro sutfrage. So that 
we have here somewhere about 70,000 
recruits in one single State; and more 
than that, the recruiting service is still 
in full operation in that State, and every 
day is adding to its swelling numbers. 

I have not time toenumeratethewell- 
known result in other State,s which have 
recently held elections. We know that 
reci'uiting offices have been opened in 
California, in New Jersey, in Pennsyl- 
vania, in New York, in Connecticut, and 
even in Massachusetts, and that, in fact, 
the recruiting service is now in full 
operation all over the United States, and 
that the people are coming forward with 
the same alacrity to vote for the restora- 
tion ot the Union as they did to fight for 
its restoration. [Hearty applause.] 

Now, observe, gentlemen, that Sena- 
tor Morton says this new party is com- 
posed of just three elements: the North- 
ern Democrats, who sympathize with 
rebellion ; the Southern rebels, and the 
recruits from the Republican party. Of 
course we must drop out the Southern 
rebel element in considering the results 
of the elections in the Northern States, 
leaving only, according to Senator Mor- 
ton's classification, the Northern Demo- 
crats, who sympathized with secession, 
and the recruit^ from the Republican 
party. Now, if the Senator b.e right, and 
only a few recruits left the party, the 
50,000 anti-Republican majority in New 
York must have been almost altogether 
carried by sympathizers with secession. 



Surely the honorable Senator could 
scarcely mean this, unless, indeed, he 
too mean that not to vote the Republican 
ticket is to be a rebel and a secessionist. 

The honorable Senator, however, does 
not stop with giving a ui me to the new 
party, and with stating its component 
parts, but he is kind enough to make up 
the issues upon which it is to contend 
in the apptoaching campaign. He says 
these issues will be : Fi rst, the payment 
of the rebel debt; second, payment for 
emancipated slaves; and, third, pen- 
sions for the widows and orphans otthe 
rebel soldiers. I do not know by what 
authority the honorable Senator under- 
takes to make a platform for a party to • 
which he does not belong. He is cer- 
tainly v«ry capable of making a plat- 
form for the party to which he does be- 
long ; but he fails to .tell- us what the 
platform of his party is to be. [Laugh- 
ter.] 

The platform which he projects for our 
party could not command a corporal's 
guard in any of the Northern States. 
It is upon no such issues as those that 
the great popular reactionary move- 
ment was begun Ijist fall. The issues of 
1868 will be the issues of 18G7 : The Con- 
stitution as it is : the limitation of Fed- 
eral power within the justand well-de- 
fined boundaries of the Constitution ; a 
restoration of all 'the St.ates under the 
Constitution, and not outside of the Con- 
stitution ; civil law instead of military 
law ; free elections, and constitutions 
formed by the people of the Statiis, and 
not by the people of the other States, 
whether in Congress or out of Congress. 
[Great cheering.J 



SPEECH OF HON. J. S. BLACK. 



Hon. J. S. Black beuig called upon 
to respond, spoke as follows: 

Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen: My 
modesty is a good deal shocked at being 
called upon to speak on this occasion 
before anybody else, except our greitly 
respected friend and excellent chair- 
man. I suppose, however, that I am ex- 
pected to say only the few words that 
are necessary to start the business of the 
evening. That is all I intend to do. 
There is no day in the year, except the 
Fourth of July, that ought to be kept 
so sacred as the 8th of January. [Ap- 
plause.] And, except the Father of his 
Country, there is n.o name known 
among men that is entitled to a higher 
reverence than that of Andrew Jackson. 
[Applause.] I put Washington first be- 
cause the place which he occupies in 
history, as the foremost man of all this 
world, has never been disputed. [Ap- 
plause.] It was always admitted that 
he stood alone, without a peer among 
mortals. Competition gave way_ before 
the acknowledged greatness of his char- 
acter, and rivalry itself conceded the 
palm to his pre-eminent virtue. I know 



not how it may be with others, but his is 
a name which I never was able to pro- 
nounce without emotions of respect and 
reverence which I have no form of words 
to express. 

But the reputation of .Jackson has not 
been so fortunate. His life was one long 
battle with the enemies of constitutional 
freedom. [Applause.] They assailed 
him with OA'ery species of slander, and 
e^en at this day the foul birds that 
streamed around him in his lifetime, and 
others hatched in the same bad •nest, 
light whenever they can upon his tomb- 
stone to defile his tomb with their ob- 
scene droppings. [Loud applause.] One 
of the most injurious of these aspersions 
IS that by which the Radical party have 
attempted to make him authority for 
their own attempts to trample upon 
liberty and law. [Great applause.] If 
that be true ; if he is authority for them ; 
if he has set the example for their mis- 
conduct; if they are travelling upon a 
path which has one impress of his foot- 
step, then he is wholly and utterly un- 
worthy of the honor which the Ameri- 
can people all through the country are 



15 



bestowing upon him at this moment. 
[Applause.] Then I give him up. He 
is their man ; he is not ours. If General 
Jackson ever tlid anything in his life 
Avhich can justify the murder, kidnap- 
ping, and rubbery of innocent men and 
women; if he ever used military force 
for the purpose of enslaving any State, 
North or South, [applause;] if he ever 
used one atom of his powerful influence 
for the purpose of subjugating his fellow- 
citizens, or any portion of them, to the 
domination of a negro government, [cries 
of "good" and applause;] if there be 
one single act of his whole life that can 
be cited as an example for the coarse, 
ffruel, and corrupt despotism which the 
Radicals hare organized wherever and 
whenever they could, then he don't be- 
long to our communion. [Applause.] 
In that case he is only fit to be set up in 
the heathen pagoda which despotism has 
established among us, as one of the di- 
vinities to be worshipped beside such 
Generals as Pope and J3aker, [loud ap- 
plause,] and others of that class, where 
the worshippers lay it down as part of 
their creed that the Constitution is "a 
league with hell and a covenant with 
death," where the high priests that min- 
ister at the altar have qualified them- 
selves for holy orders by being hired 
del,ators and purjured witnesses, and 
where an act of worship which they 
ofter consists in false affidavits against 
the honor and rights of innocent people. 
Gentlemen, Sir Walter Ealeigh once 
said that the greatest temptation to which 
a man could be subjected was the incli- 
nation to speak when the people listened ; 
but it is not a very great temptation 
■when they don't listen. [Applause and 
cries of "Go on."] Well, I will pro- 
ceed. I am not here to pronounce any 
eulogy or to make any defence of Gen- 
eral Jackson, but I do wish to refer to 
one passage in his life upon wliich the 
slander to which I have referred is based, 
if it be based upon anything. When 
General Jackson undertook the defence 
■of the city of New Orleans, in the fall 
of 1814, he assumed a responsibility such 
as had rarely been taken by anybody in 
the world, and such as very few men 
except himself would have taken under 
such circumstances. The British army 
was 14,000 strong ; composed of vet- 
erans, ably commanded, thoroughly 
trained, and fresh from the victorious 
battle-fields of the Spanish Peninsula. 
They had never known what it was to 
be defeated. No hostile army of equal 
strength had ever before landed in one 
body upon the American shores.. To 
meet them General Jackson had half the 
number of raw levies, hastily collected 
from the plough and workshop, not or- 
ganized ; all of them imperfectly equip-, 
ped, and some of them — ^k considerable 
number of tliem — not armed at all. 
With these fearful odds against him, he 
was required to hold possession of an 
unwalled and unfortified town, situate 
upon an open plain, accessible upon 
every side, and with absolutely no de- 
fences, natural or artificial, except what 
■were to be erected upon the spur of the 



occasion ; and he had not the assistance 
of one experienced officer or engineer to 
aid him in putting uj) his field-works or 
mounting his guns. 

This desperate game was to be played 
for a stake of the most stupendous mag- 
nitude. The possession of the whole 
valley of the Mississippi depended upon 
it; and if the city had been taken by 
assault, we shudder, even at this dis- 
tance of time, to think what must have 
been its fsite. The very troops that were 
then marching to the attack had com- 
mitted the most atrocious cruelties only 
a lew months before, at Badajos and St. 
Sebastian; and here again they were to 
be rewarded with bcmdy and booty. 
The defence seemed like a forlorn hope, 
without a particle of confidence in its 
success — no one hadj except ^vhat was 
inspired by the courage, genius, and 
energy of their great commander. But 
he was a host in himself. They wisely 
determined that they would throw the 
whole responsibility upon him ;_ that 
they would put their fate entirely in his 
hands, and they did so. Members of 
the Legislature, officers of the city cor-, 
poration, and judges of the courts came 
and laid their powers at his feet, and 
voluntarily' agreed that they would sur- 
render and suspend their official- func- 
tions until the danger was over. The 
whole population, with one voice, be- 
sought him that he would make the 
city a part of his camp, and take the ab- 
solute command upon himself of every 
human being within its limits. He did 
this at the universal request. Ho had a 
right to do it. It was proper that he 
should do it, for this simple and plain 
reason, that the city luas in a state of 
actual siege. It was no fiction. His act 
bore no kind of resemblance to the wan- 
ton outrage of declaring martial law, 
which is no law at all, for the mere pur- 
pose of trampling down the law of the 
land at a place where there are no mili- 
tary operations going on. [Great ap- 
plause.] 

Jackson executed the authority thus . 
bestowed upon him, "hot only moder- 
ately, but benignly. He gathered the 
people around him, and protected their 
rights to the whole extent that he was 
able to do so, consistentl.v with their'own 
good and proper defence of the place, 
as tenderly as a father would care for 
his children. But he didn't allow him- 
self to be trifled with. And that brings 
me to the only fact in bis whole life that 
has ever been criticised with reference 
to this point. A gentleman named 
Louallier, who had been a member of 
the Legislature, became, in the course of 
time, discontented. He was one of Gen- 
eral Jackson's soldiers — that is, ho had 
put himself under his command as much 
as any volunteer ia his army. Hut he 
became restive, and, after a while, he 
published aiU address, and printed and 
circulated it over the city, in which he 
counselled disobedience to the General's 
orders. That was simply mutinj', and 
the punishment of mutiny was death. 
But General Jackson only confined him, , 
declaring at the time his intention to 



16 



telease him tlie very moment that he 
dould do so with safety. Then came 
Judge Hall, another of his voluntary 
subordinates. He undertook to inter- 
fere with the discipline of General Jack- 
son's camp; by issuing a habeas corpus 
for the body of the mutineer. The 
General, in order to save all trouble, sent 
the Judge four miles up the river, with 
directions tliat he should remain outside 
of his picket-lines until it should be 
known that the enemy had retired from 
the coast. When the great battle had 
been won, whew the invader had been 
driven away, when the city was saved 
■with all its beauty and its booty, then 
Judge Hall returned ; and so soon as he 
got back he commenced a prosecution 
against General Jnckson for — what do 
you think? Contempt of court! 

The General thought that was very 
absurd. Nevertheless, although he had 
a victorious army at his back ; although 
he was surrounded by if popuhxtion that 
adored him as their great deliverer, he 
bowed his head to the lawful authorities 
of the country, as lowly as the humblest 
man in the nation. [Great applause.] 
He not only submitted to the legal pro- 
cess which was issued against him, but 
he gave to the Judge the assurance that 
the same arm which had defended the 
city against a foreign invader would de- 
fend him from the danger of a popular 
outbreak. [Applause.] He appeared 
before the court and made a defence 
which was worthy of his character as a 
lawyer, and perfectly consistent with 
his high renown as a statesman and a 
patriot. He pleaded that he was not and 
could not, be guilty of any contempt of 
court, because that court had, of its own 
accord, relinquished its authority during 
^le siege, and had notified him of the 
factv He said that even if his act was 
illegal, he had committed not a contempt 
of c^jurt, but a personal trespass against 
the Judge, and to this he was willing to 
respond' iu a personal action before a 
court of competent jurisdiction and an 
impartial jury. But he insisted that his 
adversary had no right to sit in judg- 
ment upon his own case. This defence 
was overruled by the Judge, and it was 
overruled in such manifest defiance of 
reason and justice, that the Judge would 
have been torn into pieces if General 
Jackson had not redeemed his promise 
to protect him. But he did. "When the 
Judge faltered for fear of the indigna- 
tion of the crowd with which he was 
surrounded, the General rose in the 
court and said, "Go on and perform 
what you think your duty." [Applause.] 
"I have fought-for the liberties of this 
nation, and 1 will not permit the civil 
institutions of the country to be dishon- 
ored." [Applause.] The Judge fined 
him a thousand dgllars, and then his 
friends fiocked around him to pay the 
fine for him; but he declined all such 
offers. "No," said he, "I will not 
evade the decision of a lawful tribunal." 



[Applause.] " I will pay the fine my- 
self. It becomes me to suffer whatever 
has been inflicted, rightfully or wrong- 
fully. And now," said he, " I am square 
with the law, even as Judge Hall ex- 
pounded it." 

Now, if General Jackson had systematized 
robbery and murder by means of mililary 
commissions, [applause and crics^f "Good,"] 
if, instead of using liis army to flght the 
common enemy, lie had scattered his sol- 
diers over the country, hundieds of miles 
away from his post, to kidnap liis political 
opponents for expressing their honest con- 
victions; if he lia* ordered an upri.ijlit judaie 
to be dragged from the bench by ruiiiiins, 
beaten upon the head witli the butt ends of 
their pistols, and carried away to prison, 
because lie had ivdminist ered j astice accord- 
ing to law; and if, finally, he had estab- 
lished a military despotism upon the ruins 
of a free Government; then I admit that he 
would have been fair authority, and they 
miglut have quoted him as an example of 
their misdectls. But in truth and in fact. 
General Jackson was one of the ablest and 
best defenders of the Constitution and the 
laws that the United States ever had. Tnore 
never lived a man within the limits of this 
country who wouM go further io defencl 
them, or more cheerfully shed his blood to 
save them from violation. [Apv.lause.] 

There are some persons here, I think, who 
not only know the character of General 
Jackson, but who have been intimately ac- 
quainted with him. I ask of such what 
they suppose General Jackson would have 
thought of our " Bureau of Mililary Justice," 
if such a bloody machine as that hau been 
set up in his lime. [Great applause and 
laughter.] I do not knovV ; 1 can only con- 
jecture: I think he would have shattered it 
"into a tiiousaud atoms with one blow of his 
ponderous hand, [applause;] and the first 
impulse of his noble and generous nature 
would have been to take that lawless crew 
by the throats and pitch them into the Po- 
tomac. [Applause.] I do not say he would 
have done it any more than our honored 
Chief Magistrate would. [Tremendous ap- 
plause. Three cheers for the President.] 
Let me tell you the reason why 1 think he 
would not have done it. He ivas a perfectly 
luiv-abidinc) man. He Would have waited his 
time. He "would have curbed his fiery tem- 
per ; he would have chastened down, (as he 
always did,) in a proper way his impetuous 
passions. Hut sooner or later he would 
have done what will be lione yet. [Gr^at 
applause.] He would have made tiiose mis- 
creants feel the majesty of legal justice; 

The Spaniards have a proverb, that the 
mill of God grinds slowly, but it grinds 
dreadfully fine. [Laughter.] And now, 
don't you think the people of this country 
are about to let the water on ? [Great laugh- 
ter] 

I said that I had no eulogy or defence to 
make of General Jackson ; but I do say 
now, in conclusion, that if the people of this 
country will appreciate his character truly, 
and remember well the lessons that his acts 
and his precepts havelnrnished them, they 
will have such a Government as that which 
he described in his protest to the Senate — 
not a despotism, surrounded by the prid^ 
ponrp, and circumstance of military sho\^ 
■but a quiet Government, wliicli will pro- 
tect their liberties and tlifu- rights, a Gvov- 
ernment distributing its blessings like the 
dews of Heaven, unseen and unfelt, save in 
the beauty and-freshness they contribute to 
produce. As long as we keep our eyes upon 
his history, as the pole-star by which we 
are to beguided, we will be wise ; aud when- 
ever we quit it we will be otherwise. [Great 
applause.] 



V 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



013 7/^4 532 3 



^ 



